Sedlescombe Sensory Garden
Multi award-winning school garden providing a haven for children to explore & engage with nature.
© Abby Rex
This vibrant, year-round haven of scent, colour, texture, and movement redefines what a school garden can be. Designed to provide seasonal interest with drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants and ornamental grasses, it was brought to life as an entirely voluntary effort, with both parents and pupils contributing to the build and maintenance.
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The garden received national recognition at the Society of Garden Designers Awards 2021, winning both the prestigious Judges’ Award and the Design for the Environment Award. Head Judge Richard Sneesby delivered a powerful tribute to the garden, describing it as “extraordinary — generous, beautiful, stimulating, creative, all the things that you want a garden to be.” He went on to say that it “sets a new high bar for school grounds in the future". The garden also won the Sussex Heritage Trust Landscape and Garden Award 2022.
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The garden was opened in December 2017 by Fergus Garrett, head gardener at the prestigious Great Dixter, and has been featured in Garden Answers Magazine January 2022, The Sunday Times Lifestyle Supplement November 2021 and the 'Garden Design Journal' December 2018.
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